This weekend, the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo had its second run at McCormick Place in Chicago. I only took in one day, and even that was about half the day, due to particular circumstances beyond my control. This particular con is something of a new format for cons, and you can tell they’re still working out what they want to be and how to go about it. It was a good time, with a great crowd, and as one of the top few cons in Chicago, is well worth the visit, but through the experience we can learn a lot about what goes into cons.
The idea of C2E2 is to be a pan-geek con, covering comics, movies, games, just about anything in the world of geekdom. When you think about it, it is very smart. Something I heard a couple of weeks ago that has been resonating quite a bit lately is that the younger market increasingly distinguishes less between mediums. There is little difference between a comic, a movie, a video game or a book, and there are many examples of projects which blur the lines. This is one of the reasons the YA book market is one of the strongest segments for publishing. Doing a convention based on all of these rather than just one segment makes a lot of sense, it capitalizes on the overlap of fandom.
One of the best ways to lay this out on the table for everyone to understand is to get a huge guest of honor. Last year, Neil Gaiman was the keynote speaker, perfect because he is huge in comics, books, and increasingly, film and television. He would bring people to the convention like few others could. If you don’t know it, Neil is hard to book and expensive. There was a discussion with him shortly after last year’s con where he explained his $40,000 (I think I remember that right) appearance fee. He explained it as a way to weed out people who weren’t serious about booking him, and a way to make sure we keep him writing by not overbooking him. If you want a symbol of cross media success, Neil Gaiman is probably the best fit.
Last year’s con had a very strong indie presence, and a refreshing open feeling, it wasn’t overly crowded, you could talk to people, and there was good representation from various industries. A movie Prop Auction house had a large presence, and the various medias were represented in small but probably fairly proportionate numbers.
The significant point of this is to define that you are not a replacement for comicon, establish yourself as something different.
This year, the con was crowded as comicon, and felt much like it.
In talking to one of the organizers we knew, he mentioned a few things that stuck out to me. One was that a lot of people didn’t do so well last year, and so didn’t return, particularly non-comic vendors. The problem is how to attract those vendors back.
I can identify a major limiting factor in the con, in particular, the name. Years and years ago, I was at a Neil Gaiman signing, back when Neil showing up somewhere would attract 150 people instead of 5,000. Somebody asked him what he liked about books vs. comics particularly regarding Stardust which had been a comic first, then a novel (and some years later the movie came out), and one of his points was that the Stardust comic had sold at best 10,000 copies, whereas his novel of it had sold 100,000. And books aren’t as widely consumed as movies, which are losing out to video games lately as far as gross dollars of sales.
So think about this: of all the media you’re trying to cover, the only one mentioned by name in the name of the convention is the smallest market by at least a factor of ten. Sure it mentions “Entertainment,” but what the heck does that mean? I don’t even know. I can think of forms of entertainment that appeal to wider audiences than this convention, and they aren’t represented, NASCAR, Hip-hop and pro bowling for example. Any of these would fall under the “entertainment” banner (though I question the definition of them as entertainment) so that’s just a non-descriptive term. If I looked at “Chicago Entertainment Expo” I would have even less clue of what it’s about.
If you drop comics from the name, you probably lose the independent nature of the show, as comics are the most independent industry of the bunch, and the easiest for a single creator to get an edge in. It is nice to see an artist’s alley that is about half the size of the show. You don’t want to drop it entirely, but the other media needs to be spelled out in some way.
The other way to do it would be to call it what it is-the Pan Geek Media Expo. You want to bring people and vendors and guests the way San Diego does? Well, you don’t have the proximity, industry or history, so branding is going to be one of your most powerful tools to accomplishing this.
In Chicago, we had a very interesting related event in comic conventions when Wizard World bought out the Chicago Comicon from Motor City Conventions. I was at the last couple years of the Motor City cons, and when you walked in, you waled into Artist’s alley, which was huge, and made your way to the majors. They were like milk in the supermarket, you’re going to go there, so they make you walk past all the other stuff you don’t need to get there. There was a separate dealer room. When the major company took it over, all off the majors were up front, booths doubled in cost leaving many indies priced out of even artist alley. I had a company that made an appearance, and paying off the booth was a challenge. The entire con probably cut to half the size. I think because of this, there’s a big opening in this market for a large, independent driven convention.
So I think C2E2 attendance was up, but industry participation was down. It’s a new con and needs years to grow. This is probably nothing to worry about in terms of the con returning next year. I just hope it finds it’s market and thrives, because it could be great.
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